Production-clock



J. F. MALCOLM.

PRODUCTION CLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED SEPLIE, 191s.

Patented Dec. 16, 1919.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

w illilllll llilitlllt ii lis- J. F. MALCOLM.

PRODUCTION CLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT- 6 1916. 1,324,91 6. Patented Dec. 16,1919.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

JAMES F. MALCOLM, OF ELMH'U'RSL NEW YORK.

PRODUCTION-CLOCK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 16,1919.

Application filed September 16, 1916. Serial No. 120,511.,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES F. MALCOLM, a citizen 'of the United States, residing at Elmhurst, in the county of Queens and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Production- Clocks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itv appertains to make and use the same.

The present invention relates to produc tion clocks, and more particularly to clocks of this type which are connected with a machine,'the operation of which is to be measured.

It is very desirable in various kinds of manufacturing industries to compensate the operatives on a time basis and in order to increase the production so far as possible this time basis should be measured in accordance with the amount of work produced.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a production clock wh ch may be attached to a machine and which 111- dicates in terms of elapsed time the production of the machine so that the operative may know whether the machine is exceeding or falling below a predetermined eificlency and the employer at the end" of the run or days work may readily know the amount due the operative without the necessity of computation.

The advantages of this type of clock are manifold as it tends to speed up production, the payment of the operative depending directly upon the output of the machine, and afiords a simple and convenient basis upon which to determine the compensation.

Inasmuch as the efliciency of the operative and the machine varies according to the quality and character of the work, it is essential that mechanism be provided for adapting the production clock to any given'class of work.

To this end a further object of the invention is to provide a production clock connected with the machine to be measured in such a manner that the clock will indicate the proper length of time for which the operative is to be paid for any desired class of work, although the latter may vary widely. l

With the above objects in view the various features of the invention consist in certain novel features of construction, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed, the advantages of which will be obvious to those skilled in the art from the following description.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the preferred form of the invention, Figure 1 illustrates a front elevation of the clock, and the driving connections between the clock and the machine to be measured; Fig.

2 is a section in elevation of the mechanism for operating the various clock hands; Fig. 3 1s a side elevation of the clock mechanism with a portion of the casing and dials shown in section; Fig. 1 is a rear elevation of the clock mechanism illustrating the back plate and gears mounted thereon; and Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are details illustrating the mounting of the various hands.' I

The illustrated embodiment of the invention shows the production clock employed in connection With a machine in which the drive shaft is indicated at 5, and is provided with a worm 6 meshing with a driven worm gear 7 A driving pinion 9 is mounted upon the shaft with the worm gear 7 and actuates a driven gear 10 through an intermediate or idler gear 11. The gear 10 actuates the clock mechanism through afiexible shaft indicated generally at 15, and connected at opposite ends to the gearand to a worm 16 mounted upon the upper end of a vertical shaft 17 journaled in the clock casing 18, and connected to the flexible shaft 15 through the usual coupling member indicated at 19. In order to permit the clock to be disconnected from the-driving shaft 5 whenever desired, and to accommodate the clock to machines of"different types or different shaft speeds, the intermediate gear 11 is adjustably supported in a curved slot 20, which permits movement of the gear into and out of engagement with the driven gear 10, and at the same time permits the removal of the driven gear 10 and re lacement thereof by a gear having a di erent number of teeth to vary the driving relation between the shaft 5 and the flexible shaft 15. The clock casing 18 is supported upon a hollow standard 22 through which the flexible driving shaft 15 passes, and which is conveniently secured to the machine frame indicated at 23. The intermeshing gears for driving the flexible shaft are supported upon a bracket 24 depending from the frame 23, and having bearings in which the various ears are journaled, as shown clearly in ig. 1 of the drawings.

According to the present invention the clock not only indicates the elapsed time for which the operative is to be paid during any one day, but in addition shows the total elapsed time from the beginning of the week, thus enabling the compensation due the operative to be readily determined upon either a daily or a weekly basis. In addition the clock is provided with means for indicat ng the efficiency of the operative b comparing the time during which the mac ine has run with the time which the machine should theoretically run in operating upon the particular class of work in question. Upon referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings it Wlll be noted that the clock is provided with a large outer dial 24 which is divided in the usual manner, and is provided with an hour hand 25 and a minute hand 26 moving thereover.

In addition to the outer dial a smaller dial is located in the upper portion of the clock face, and comprises inner and outer dials 27 and 28 which are divided respectively into hours and minutes, and are provided with an hour hand 30, and a minute hand 31. It will be noted that the inner dial 27 is divided to represent 72 hours, thus accommodating the clock to the maximum possible number of working hours for one week. The hands on both the large outer dial. and the smaller dials are set initially at the beginning of the week, the hands upon the larger dial being reset at the beginning of each succeeding day or run, and the hands'on the smaller dial remaining untouched until the end of the week. Thus the larger dial will indicate the elapsed time from the beginning of any particular day, and the hands upon the smaller dial will indicate the elapsed time from the beginning of the week. The efficiency of the machine or the proportion of the total elapsed time which the machine has operated is indicated by a small dial 35 located in the lower portion of the clock face and divided into one hundred equal parts. This dial is provided with a hand 36 moving thereover and arranged to indicate what percentage of the time the machine has operated. The efficiency hand 36 is actuated from the driving worm 16 through a driven worm gear 37 mounted upon a shaft 38, and having a worm 39 secured thereto. The worm 39 meshes with a second worm gear 40 mounted upon one end of an incliried85 driving shaft of the clock, and is operated at a constant speed with relation to the shaft 15. a

It is essential especially in measuring the output of roving frames or similar machines that the efficiency clock shall be capable of ready adaptation to different classes of work, and to this end it is essential that mechanism be provided for conveniently varying the speed of the clock hand with relation to the driving mechanism. This will be obvious when it is understood that an operative spinning the poorer grades of yarn is compelled to stop the machine more frequently than an operative spinning the better grades of yarn, although the efiiciency of the operative in each case may be the same. Thus the production clock must be adapted to indicate the same elapsed time for which the operative is to be paid in cases where the actual time of operation of the machine may vary considerably. To this end a change gear 40 is provided for actuating the clock hands, and is mounted in a manner to permit its convenient removal and replacement by some other change gear having a different number of teeth. In operating upon any given class of work a change gear having the proper number of teeth is embodied in the train of gearing, and when the class of work operated upon is changed. the gear is readily replaced by another. Upon referring to Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings, it will be noted that the gear 40 is actuated from a large gear 41 mounted upon the shaft 38, and connected with the gear 40 through an intermediate idler gear 43. The gear 40 is secured to a shaft 44, and serves directly to actuate the large minute hand 26. i The hour hand 25 is actuated in the ratio of 1 to 12 with respect to the minute hand through the usual train of reducing gears 45, 46. 47 and 43. As noted from Fig. 7 the gear 45 is secured to the shaft 44 and the gear 48 is sleeved thereon and connected directly to the hour hand 25. It will be noted that the change gear 40 is frictionally connected to the shaft 44 through a clamping member 50 having a series of resilient arms 51 yieldingly engaged with the face of the gear by a retaining member 53 threaded upon the end of the shaft. This construction permits the change gear to be readily removed when desired. and at the same time permits the resetting of the hands 25 and 26 without disturbing the driving connections, the friction members permitting a relative rotation of the shaft and change gear 40. The hour and minute hands 30 and 31 respectively 63 connected to the gear 60 through an intermediate gear 62. The driven gear 63 is secured to a shaft 65 carrying the minute hand. The hour hand isconnected thereto through a train of reducing gears indicated respectively at 66, 67, 68 and 69, .to drive the hour and minute hands in the ratio of .1 to 72, the minute hand moving at the same speed as the minutehand 26. In order to permit the removal of the change gear 40 and the replacement thereof by a gear having a different-number of teeth, the intermediate gear 43 is loosely journaled upon a stub shaft 7 O which is mounted in a curved slot 73 formed in the back plate 74. The shaft is. adjustably secured in theslot by a clamping member 75. With this construction by releasing the clamping member 75, the gear 43 may v e moved out of engagement with the gear 40 to permit the removal thereof, and upon the substitution of a gear having a different number of teeth, the shaft 70 may be properly adjusted, in the. slot 7 3 to cause the gear 43 to mesh with the gears v40 and 41. In order to permit the resetting of the hands 30 and 31, the intermediate gear 62, in a like manner is loosely journaled upon a stub shaft 75 supported in a slot 76 formed in the back plate74, and adjustably held in any desired position by a clamping member 78. When the gear 62 and 63 are disengaged the hands 30 and 31 may be reset by manipulating the member 66 threadedly connected to the shaft 65.

The back plate 74 is connected to the clock casing through a series of arms 85, indicated at'Fig. 2, and-to a'front plate 77 by parallel spacing members 80. The several hand shafts are journaled at opposite ends in the two plates, and the driving and change gear is mounted upon the back plate according to the usuual method of constructing clocks. In order to permit convenient access to the change gear and at the same time prevent unauthorized tampering therewith, the rear portion of the clock casing is provided with an opening normally closed by a locked doo 81, which, when opened, enables the change gear to be readily removed.

The production clock is preferably operated inthe following manner: When the operative begins the weeks work, for example, Monday at seven a. m., the hands 25 and I 26 operating over the large outer dial are set initially to correspond with the hands of the ordinary time clock, that is, to indicate se en oclock. The hands 30 and 31 by comparin hands operating over the large outerdial operating over thesmall dials 27 and 28 --are set in a vertical position opposite the top portions of the dials, as indicated by the figures 60 and7 2. At any given time during the morning the total amount of elapsed time for which the operative is to be paid may be noted by referring to the small dials 27 and 28, while the amount oftime by which the operative has exceeded or fallen below a theoretical efliciency may be noted the time indicated by the with the usual time clock. For example,

if a reading at ten a. m. was taken, and

the hands 25 and 26 showed a reading of ten thirty, it would indicate that the operator had exceeded thetheoretical elficiency ofthe machine and was entitled to a bonus based upon the difference between the two readings, in other words, thirty minutes. When the machine-is again started in the afternoon, for example, at one p. m., the hands 25 and 26 are again set to correspond with the hands of the time clock. Thus, at any time during the afternoon the amount that the machine has exceeded or fallen below a certain efliciency may be readily determined, whereas the total amount of time for which the operative is to-be paid from the beginning of the day may be readily determined by observing the small dials 27 and 28. This operation is repeated for each day during the week, the large hands indicating to the operative, or other interested persons, whether the machine is exceeding or falling below a certaintheoretical efficiency, and the smaller hands operating over the dials 27 and 28 indicating the time for which the operative is to be paid from the beginning of the week. In a like manner, by referring to the lower dial 35, the efliciency of the machmemay be noted as compared with the theoretical or estimated eiliciency. In other words, /by the use of this clock, it can be determined at'all times not only whether the machine is operatinga we or below a certain rate of production, but in addition the total elapsed time during 'which the machine has operated from the beginning of the week or other period'for which the operative is to be paid.

While it is preferred to employ the speclfic construction and: arrangement of parts shown and described, it will be understood that this construction and arrangement is not essential except so far as specified in' the claims, and may be changed or modified without departing from the broader features of the invention.

The invention having been described.

periods of time must inevitably occur If" a days run, of a recording mechanism adapted to indicate the total amount of time saved in the estimated total of said stoipages, said mechanism embodying a cloc face recorder having clock-hands, and gearing for driving said recorder from said machine at a rate of speed which will tend to compensate for the usual amount of time lost in a mm of predetermined duration and thus indicate to the attendant at all times the 10 amount of stoppage time that has been saved or lost in said run.

JAMES F. MALCOLM. 

